Prepare to face a new set of challenges in this brand-new Pokemon world as you square off against new enemies and rivals, forge new friendships, and create teams to travel the world with on your quest of discovery

After a very.... interesting encounter with what he'd originally thought to be a glaceon, Sova had mixed feelings about how his day had gone thus far. He'd had quite the unpleasant experience with a rather unappealing ditto; the second one of the day; but he'd also completed the missions he'd taken that were holding him back from progressing toward his true goal. In fact, the second ditto had actually been just who he had been looking for in order to complete one of his missions! Now, he could move on to the ruins, where he hoped he would find something that could solve his issue. This issue was one he'd kept mostly to himself, but it was one he shared with his group. Or at least, he shared a similar problem with the ones he'd chosen to come along with him.

He knew that he couldn't exactly send Dusk back to Grassveil alone, which meant she'd have to come with him and would inevitably figure out that he was going to the Snowcloak Ruins.... and, of course, she would figure out why. The glaceon knew this, but he still planned to keep her in the dark for as long as he could. It was something private to him that he wanted to keep between himself and those he'd entrusted with it for as long as he could. Plus, he figured Dusk would just try to convince him not to if she figured out. He didn't need any more forces tugging at his emotional state than he already had, and he certainly wasn't interested in being told he was wrong by someone who couldn't possibly understand.

The hail had stopped and he could now see the others thanks to the increased visibility. He looked over to the charmeleon next to him and spoke up: "Looks like we're home."He had been planning to let Garnet respond, but then he spotted something that made him want to speak once more. The other umbreon Dusk had brought along with her was scurrying over to the two of them with a bag full of.... sticks. She seemed to be more focused on Garnet than himself, and since he didn't want to get sucked into any more social situations, he simply backed away and allowed the charmeleon to handle it. "Looks like you've got a fan," he joked.

-Dusk-

Dusk was alone with Acro, watching over him while the rest of the group was either out or just avoiding the poor guy. She'd previously had company, but this company was.... dismantled by her after they pushed her to the point where she simply could not handle having them around. "He did what you hired him for, now get out of here! Can't you find something better to do!?" she thought about what she had said to get the odd duo of clients to leave the bird and herself alone.She'd gotten a bit pushy, but it was only because they had refused to leave otherwise. She was just happy that now, she could get to know Acro a bit better. She could only hope he wasn't upset about the fact that she'd kind of chased his clients off. Surely, it would be fine, since he had already completed the mission.

"So, what's your team? I don't follow guilds too much," she questioned in an attempt to get to know Acro a bit better.She was curious to know the name of the team the archeops was a member of, and she didn't recall asking him before. He seemed to be the leader, or at least the figure of authority between himself and.... Linus.... Dusk didn't like Linus, as he seemed to be the opposite of what she imagined a member of a guild as. Then again, Sova wasn't exactly what she felt a guild member was supposed to be like either. Still, she knew Sova at least seemed to do the right thing when it mattered, even if it meant putting his own life at risk. The umbreon had also come to understand that perhaps in the line of work of doing "right," Sova may have had to put his morals aside at times and thus, he looked like an ass.

Dusk was so distracted with the archeops before her that she failed to notice that the rest of the group was getting back. She had taken it upon herself to be Acro's guard, even though she knew he was stronger than her. The issue with his strength was that he was exhausted and had probably caught hypothermia. At that, from what she'd been told, the archeops had a rather crippling ability that was probably still active.

-Krikka-

Krikka had become incredibly bored with her situation and ended up laying in the snow despite how cold it was. She was on her back, doing her best to get a good look at some of her pretty blue rings. In other words, she was indulging in a bit of narcissism to sate her boredom, as there was always one thing that never failed to entertain her in times of need. Herself. It was herself that she could always count on to cheer her up when the world was failing her, and the world failed her quite often. Perhaps she was just very picky and hard to please, but she didn't care. She was awesome! Her rings looked so much cooler than the tacky yellow that was on the lesser umbreon!

Despite being enthralled by herself, she still had her attention split enough to notice when the the glaceon and that foul charmeleon had gotten back. When she spotted the latter, she immediately rolled back onto her belly, pushed herself up off the ground, and shook the snow off of her. She then immediately got to work with her part of the revenge plan and trusted Linus to do his part. She put on the friendliest smile she could and began walking with a disgustingly happy skip in her step. This was to make her seem innocent, but it was also to make her look like a tripping hazard, like she could fall over herself at any second. She intended to fall, after all, so she needed to make it look like an accident. "Hiiiiii~" she waved a paw in the direction of the two returning members of the group. It was meant specifically for the one she was after.

Krikka intended to fall over like a klutz as soon as she got close enough to the charmeleon to potentially knock him over. She would, of course, try to put as much force into her little stunt as she could without making it obvious that she wasn't exactly falling. She figured the lizard was stronger than her, so she very much hoped she would have the element of surprise. Even if she couldn't knock him to the ground, she figured she would still be able to get him to hold still by pretending to be hurt and getting him to check her "injuries." He was with guild members, so he had to!

Just as the medicham's bones began to crack, a familiar white glow enveloped him once more, signaling recovery. His body was now healing, and even faster than it was breaking, but he was still clearly in too much pain from the pressure to do much else. S.S. frowned at the annoying determination the medicham held, and simply continued to press down even harder in an attempt to finish him before he could continue healing. Unfortunately, the medicham's arms were also healing, and the second they were in remotely decent condition, he sent one of his fists straight up to whack the glaceon in the face, knocking him off of him. "You're getting annoying," S.S. growled. The medicham was gasping for breath, unable to get up despite trying to. His healing hadn't quite carried him so far yet, so he instead tried to pull himself away to gain some distance.

The glaceon calmly strutted right up to his prey and paused when they were mere inches apart, as if awaiting another attack. The medicham's bodily glow suddenly faded as he shifted all of his focus and energy into one of his hands, trying to deliver an open-palmed strike to the glaceon to disable him with the force, if even for a moment. S.S. simply took a slight step back to avoid the strike, and the medicham's arm seemed to hang in the air for a moment in frustration and disbelief at being so utterly beaten. As the arm fell to the ground, S.S. raised his front paws up and quickly slammed them down on top of it, shattering multiple rather important-sounding bones and eliciting a howl of pain from the medicham.

"Oh, sure, now you scream. Not earlier when I was into it," the glaceon spoke in a disturbingly casual manner.

The medicham moaned as he cradled his arm, which S.S. simply allowed. The pain of the injury seemed to be stopping the medicham from focusing well enough to to heal himself. "No, I'm not in the mood anymore, but thanks for the effort. I'll just go ahead and kill you," S.S. mocked as if the two were doing some kind of consensual foreplay. He slowly inched closer to the medicham, taking his time so he could consider what way in which to finish his... duel.

-Dusk-

The remaining two druddigon were already upon the umbreon, trying to finish her off, and she knew she wouldn't be able to hold out much longer against them. She'd been fortunate to be able to take advantage of their poor strategies and clumsiness, but she was becoming too exhausted to continue with such a course of action. She stumbled back as one druddigon attempted to slash her with its claws, leaving her vulnerable for the attack of its ally. The second druddigon brought one of its large hands down on top of the umbreon's head as she was unable to avoid the attack. Its intention was to slam her head into the ground, but her body barely even moved. She stared up at the dragon as she fought against its strength with her own. It turned around, seemingly looking to its ally for assistance, but the other dragon was in the middle of being batted across the hall, which would be enough to render it unconscious on top of the damage it'd already sustained.

"Looks like your friends are out," Dusk proclaimed with a slight smirk. The druddigon seemed to grow panicked, pulling its other arm back as it prepared to just strike her if it couldn't push her to the ground. The umbreon took this chance to pull herself out of the grip of the dragon's hand before rushing into its legs, causing it to fall forward into the ground due to its balance being off-put in its preparation to attack. It was then that she was reminded that this was the especially spiky druddigon, its rugged scales scratching her body as she rammed into it. She ignored the minor pain and immediately turned around to see the foe trying to get back up quickly, but not quickly enough. She jumped onto its back with as much force as she could, knocking it back down to the ground with an "oomph."

Dusk stumbled off of the back of the druddigon, assuming it was down for the count like its friends. She then felt one of its hands grab onto her tail, prompting her to instinctively spin around and bite onto the appendage... which immediately filled her with regret. The sharp body of this druddigon's body pierced the inside of Dusk's mouth as she tried to bite it, causing rather... intense pain. She recoiled and yanked her tail out of the druddigon's hand, but managed to catch a glimpse of blood on it... her own blood. Now she was going to bleed out from accidentally trying to bite a rock. Fantastic.

Dusk growled at the druddigon, who was just barely leaning up off of the ground, propped up by one arm as it tried to push itself back to its feet with the other. Discarding the threat of its painful body out of rage, she turned around and kicked it in the head with her back legs as hard as she could muster, knocking it back to the ground, and this time for good. Her paws weren't quite bleeding like her mouth; they were considerably more durable, but it was still fairly painful. She stepped away and nearly collapsed from the exhaustion overcoming her, just barely managing to catch herself and shakily sit down. She gasped and panted for breath now that her adrenaline was wearing off, and she was very much starting to wish for water. The sensation of liquid in her throat caused her to cough, and when she looked at the ground, it wasn't surprising to see blood. She'd cut her mouth trying to nom on the druddigon, after all.

But staring at the blood, she began to feel a very odd sensation... a desire. Her head absentmindedly raised up from the ground in front of her to stare at the unconscious enemy. She found herself discarding the knowledge of its painfully rough skin as a desire to further harm it crept into her mind. She wanted to see more blood. Her breathing steadied as her mind drifted into a trance-like state, the cloak's influence wrapping around her thoughts and desires. It took her a moment to realize what she was thinking, but when she finally did, she recoiled and turned her head away in a mixture of fear, shock and shame. She looked around for something to take her mind away from the horror it was falling into, and the first thing she noticed that she could interact with was Acro.

"W-what now?" she spoke up to the bird, trying to make herself sound alright to avoid worrying him. She was having... very minimal success with the whole "sounding alright" thing, so she would just have to hope he wouldn't notice. The increasing number of sableye copies was intruding on pretty much the entire hallway, making her uncomfortably creep toward the archeops in the hopes they would be better protected if they were close together, but it was relatively low on her list of concerns.

-Krikka-

To Krikka's satisfaction, the beheeyem got back up from her attack, and it still seemed to be in relatively decent condition. As long as it kept being an idiot, perhaps she would get to have some fun and keep up her persona at the same time. She prepared to strike it with another Dark Pulse, but before she could, the voice of a certain obnoxious sableye called out in an attempt to give it advice. Good advice, and it would probably listen since the two were allies. "Hey, mind your own business!" she shouted. She didn't really care about the duplicate-images of the sableye since they weren't causing her any harm and she doubted it would prioritize helping this lowly idiot beheeyem with its other allies also in trouble, but its voice was enough to put her fun in jeopardy.

Seemingly taking its ally's advice, the beheeyem seemed to concentrate as it pointed a hand outward toward the umbreon and closed its eyes. Its body took on a brief, darkly glow before sending a pulse of negativity toward her. Krikka was unable to avoid the attack, but she wasn't exactly trying; she simply allowed the Dark Pulse to hit her, barely even being pushed back by the force of the impact. She gave a dull, unamused stare to the beheeyem, having trouble believing that it could be so incompetent. "Were you dropped on the head as a child? Just curious," she questioned, and the curiosity was genuine. The beheeyem simply hanged its head and arms in a depressed manner in response.

Krikka shrugged, "Oh well, my turn." She channeled her inner negativity once more and, with a flash of dark aura around her body, sent another pulse of dark energy toward the beheeyem. Hers clearly hurt more, which was likely due to the lopsided type-effectiveness. Of course using a dark-type move wasn't going to do much to her, especially since this particular beheeyem didn't seem very strong. It was struck down to the ground once more, but this time, Krikka decided she would continue hitting it while it was down in an attempt to just go ahead and end the fight. Now that one of the other enemies was taking interest in her fight, she had no desire to extend it. Darkness began to well up inside of her body once more as she prepared to attack yet again.

-Shara-

The foe was dealt with, but now there was a new problem: the charmeleon was most certainly not okay. In fact, by his demeanor, he seemed like he was going to attack. Shara sighed when he called her out in a rather angry manner. "Oh boy, me," she mocked sarcastically, muttering to herself as she doubted the lizard was capable of listening to her even if she tried to speak up for him to hear. Then came the charmeleon's threat, which really didn't threaten her at all; she was more concerned for his safety than her own. "Doubtful," came her response as she simply stepped out of the way of the firebrand's poor excuse for an attack.

She didn't want to hurt him, and she wasn't concerned about getting herself hurt, but she wasn't really sure how to fix this situation. It was pretty clear that the beheeyem was to blame for this situation, but that didn't really help her figure out how to fix it. Maybe another lum berry? But... she wasn't the one with the lum berries, and the guy who had them seemed relatively... busy. "Whatever that thing did to you, you need to snap out of it so we can go help your friends," she decided to try talking him down, though she doubted it would work since he already had a negative disposition toward her in the first place.

His help had failed. The sableye gave an annoyed sneer as the beeheyem only used a move that was only slightly more effective. "You fool!" he sneered to the beheyeem. The umbreon looked as if she were about to attack, this was NOT good. Still, he was not going to sit here and assist the wretched idiot if it was only going to continue to be an idiot.

The sableye twitched as he heard the scream pierce the air. It was medicham. The Sableye immediately abandoned his post. Whatever was going on, it was because he wasn't there to help. The sableye grumbled to itself as it charged towards the glaceon from behind. The large gem was held above his head effortlessly as the Pure Power took effect. His eyes took on a white glow as his strength only intensified. The sableye moved the gem as if it were a bat, aiming to slam the glaceon in the side and thus off of the medicham and allow it time to recover.

"FUCK OFF!" The sableye screamed just before it made its move...if it was even able to get close to the grim and injured creature that threatened his partner in crime's life.

---

Acro could feel his tail connect with the druddigon, the rough skin clashed against the ironed scales of his tail before it was sent to the other side of the corridor. Dusk had made quick work of the druddigon now that she no longer needed to worry about the other one. That was good. She had neared him and spoken to him, but her voice sounded...odd.

No no no, not her too. Was she another Sova situation? His mind immediately jumped to the conclusion, but he was quick to dismiss it. His reason conflicted with his lack of self-confidence as he tripped up yet again on a leadership role. What were they to do, where even was the Sableye?

"F-Find the Sableye," he spoke to Dusk, "We can't let him interfere in the fight against the-"

"FUCK OFF!" he heard the voice sound out from behind him, where the glaceon and the medicham had been fighting.

"Medicham..." he exhaled with a touch of hopelessness to his tone.

He had failed again. Great, how many failures was that in one day? How many more times was he just going to up and fail? He wanted something to swallow him. He wanted something to just crush him. The will to live that had slowly drained over time suddenly seemed to increase in pace.

He wanted to die.

The way he saw the situation, that wish was going to be granted soon enough.

---

Help his friends? What friends? His friends were off somewhere else. Namataki and Jade were not here, so who could there possibly be left? Memories had been wiped, but it was only temporary as the duration of the confusion was drawn out. It was a matter of time before he snapped out of it on his own, but until then he wanted nothing more than to skin that little eevee alive.

The charmeleon gave a fierce hiss, "LIES!" he barked. His lungs inhaled and exhaled in fast deep breaths as they struggled for the oxygen they so desperately yearned for. His muscles begged for everything to just stop and that rest was needed, but he was not about to let this little eevee fool him!

His claws extended once more, though his movements had become sluggish. Even if he had been at top shape, it would have been easy for the eevee to evade his attacks. Hell, at this rate Shara probably didn't even need to move for him to miss. Whether the attack had struck or not, he fell to his knees, one arm supporting him while the other was still prepared for a continuation for the attack.

The charmeleon was exausted. His body was at its limit. Well, it had reached its limit a long time ago. This was all simply extra credit in terms of a work out.

He was far too distracted with his current engagement to notice the interruption until it was too late. A cost of zoning out so heavily that he could ignore his pain and exhaustion was that he also couldn't really focus on things happening around him; his ears were virtually useless, and his eyes only served to tell him where his immediate target was. When the gem made contact with his body, he barely even felt a tingle through the excess of pain already surging through his body and wouldn't even have noticed it if not for him being knocked off his paws and sent flying. He slammed into the ground and came to a quick stop with violent shattering noises as his body's armor was cracked and broken.

With his armor now in tatters, the full extent of his injuries was revealed once more as blood immediately began to pool around him, now flowing freely from his wounds. "I feel like that should have hurt," he muttered with a chuckle as he stared at the blood on the ground around him. This chuckle continued into deranged laughter as he arose from his collapsed state. Half of his body - the side he'd landed on - was absolutely soaked in his own blood. He was probably going to bleed out, and very soon, but he didn't really care. He tilted his head and gave a maniacal-yet-absent stare toward the sableye as his insane and fragmented mind put together what had happened. He looked down at himself, lifting his blood-soaked front leg and giving another unhinged laugh at the whole hilarious situation as he registered how poor his fighting really was.

It was unavoidable.

"Heh... oh well... Eheh... hah..." he tried to suppress his laughter in order to speak.

With a deep, audible breath, his mania suddenly vanished.

"You got me. I can't fight both of you in this condition... I'm about to pass out... I'll bleed out if my allies can't win and tend to me. And without me, I'm pretty sure they're dead anyway."

The temperature around him began to spike to painfully low temperatures, quickly burning away the last of his energy. Even if he had enough left for more than one attack, he was going to pass out from blood loss before he'd get the chance to get in a second hit, so it didn't matter anyway. Wind began to whirl around him in circular motions, water vapor in the air freezing into misty diamond dust and making the winds visible. The medicham was healing, but it was a bit too late for that now. He would never restore his body to a good-enough condition to withstand this attack in time. S.S. was fully aware of the implications of an all-out blizzard; not only would it exhaust every ounce of energy in his body, but it would also freeze over the entire battlefield... and all of his "allies" would be in the crossfire.

"I guess everyone has to die eventually. I'm gonna do a little gambling and hope my side handles this better than yours, but if this is my time... YOU ALL GET TO COME WITH ME!!"

With his screaming promise that everyone would die with him, the blizzard began to expand outward. By now, the diamond dust was beginning to collect into snowflakes, then hailstones, before finally crashing to the ground - or whatever else they happened to land on - with violent force. The extremely low temperature inside of the blizzard froze the ground as it expanded outward, a testament to its power. The further it expanded, the weaker it became toward the center as the glaceon struggled to hold the entire thing together, but he was quite confident that this would be enough. He wasn't even thinking about if he'd done enough or who he was hurting; all he could think of was keeping it going as long as he could.

Edge Rating:

-Dusk-

Dusk nodded before the archeops was even finished speaking and immediately started trying to locate the sableye, but it was already too late. Its very familiar voice rang out just as it closed in on the glaceon, managing to get in a rather effective strike that sent him flying down the hall. The distinct sounds of something breaking were audible as he hit the ground, and Dusk could only hope it wasn't from any bones. "Get up..." she muttered, hoping the glaceon would be able to handle such an attack, but she could see the blood pooling around him. He was down for the count, and with his injuries, he would probably be lucky to survive.

...

She stared in disbelief as the glaceon just got right back up, looking like a corpse with his wounds revealed and his body covered in blood. He didn't seem to care even enough to reform his armor, which made the umbreon a bit uncomfortable, primarily because she found herself unable to look away from the bloody horror. For a moment, she was hopeful that they could still win... Then her ears began picking up the psychopath's rant. He seemed pretty certain he had already lost, yet he looked to be preparing to attack once more. The umbreon was confused only briefly before she heard the glaceon yell out a promise that implied he was going to kill everyone...

"Acro, make a wall!" she frantically looked to the archeops and hoped that he could make a wall of rocks quickly enough to protect the both of them from the oncoming blizzard. She backed away instinctively, but there was nowhere to run. She knew she was incapable of just walking off such an attack, so the only thing she could think to do was block it, and it just so happened that she had absolutely no way to do that herself.

-Krikka-

The sableye sounded very unhappy with its ally's performance, but it didn't seem interested in helping. "I agree," Krikka responded, thugh she doubted the gremlin was paying any mind to her words. She sent another pulse of dark energy out at the beheeyem while it was still down, eliciting a whine from it. This wasn't exactly enough to satisfy her, but she knew she couldn't just go torturing someone with so many eyes around to witness it. The poor hapless idiot didn't seem interested in getting back up anyway. It was actually still conscious, but it seemed to be choosing to stay on the ground, as if in an attempt to surrender. Or perhaps it was hoping for an ally to come help it.

Krikka took her attention off of her own poor excuse for a battle when she heard the sableye's voice once more, and this time, it seemed it was annoying someone else. However, she was concerned about the target it'd chosen: the glaceon. For a moment, she was concerned that he had been defeated with one attack from the sableye due to his already-extensive injuries. This concern faded as she watched him get back up from the attack, now covered in his own blood. He would surely be able to handle a two-on-one, right? Or at the very least, he'd stall them long enough for someone else to help. It'd all work out fine.

Nope.

Next thing she knew, there was a mass of wind and icy haze threatening to consume everyone. She looked behind her to check if she had any good places to run for cover, and she didn't. Rather than even bother to run, she simply turned back to face the blizzard and calmly sat down with a sigh. "That really seems excessive," she commented to herself. Of course, she was infuriated about this development, but she intended to face the inevitable future with dignity.

-Shara-

Shara sighed at the charmeleon's refusal to listen to her, even going so far as to claim she was lying. He was completely out of it, and the only options were either knocking him out or waiting for him to calm down. Out of refusal to harm an ally, she simply stepped out of the way of yet another of the lizard's attacks. She could surely dance around his clumsy swings until he exhausted himself too much to continue, or until his little delusion wore off. But it seemed she wasn't going to be getting that far with him. She hadn't noticed the sableye interfering in the dangerous psychopath's fight, but she certainly noticed the freezing vortex of snow that was now forming.

She looked toward the charmeleon before deciding to attempt to communicate with him once more: "Stop." She rushed up to him, prepared to avoid another attack if she needed to. She was much less concerned with him hitting her than she was with the blizzard killing him. He was still recovering from poison, after all, and he didn't seem particularly strong. "Stay near me so I can protect you," she demanded, her tail taking on a metallic sheen as she prepared to start playing baseball with hailstones. She couldn't nullify the entire blizzard, but at the very least, she could stop either of them from being pelted by masses of ice.

He was not left with much time to dwell on his failures. Acro heard the command from Dusk and immediately acted upon it. The archeops began to take on a brighter glow than the previous attempts as he put all of his focus into the creation of a protective barrier.

The boulders around them that he previously used shot into place in front of him before they eventually began to build around both him and the umbreon as a dome was created. He was not strong enough to send help in the other's direction, he would just have to save what he could and hope they could make it out some way themselves.

The archeops's barrier of boulders crashed and struck against each other as they constructed the protective barrier. The chill in the air still reached him as the winds threatened to tear away at the armor of the boulders and reach the meat inside. He held the rocks in place, struggling visibly as he put all of his attention into simply holding them to the spot.

If Dusk had said anything, he ignored it. He dared not to risk shattering his concentration and allowing the winds to sweep them away into the same grave as Linus.

Then, it stopped.

He held the barrier still as he listened to the outside, fearful that it might start up again with a force even stronger than before. After a moment's silence, the barrier collapsed as he released the hold on the rocks. He and the umbreon were now surrounded by a ring of rocks as they were left to observe the aftermath...

--

Garnet wanted to attack again despite the oncoming storm and despite the fact that the eevee had protected him. Unfortunately, he collapsed. His strength was gone, he had already exerted himself too much. He breathed heavily as he remained in one stop, his mind given time to snap itself out of the trance as he pieced the true memories back together. The effect of the Beheeyem's ability had lost its affect as the confusion was dispelled from his mind.

The charmeleon's blaze faded as the hostility and will to fight anything that was close vanished. The flame on his tail became small once more as if it too was exhausted as he.

He was stuck in a daze as he was kept still. The air around him was cold, chilly, as winds desired to suck the last of the charmeleon's heat from him. Luckily, that wasn't quite possible for a fire type even if it was as weak as he.

Quite frankly, he was annoyed with himself as he finally connected the pieces that he had been practically brainwashed for a brief moment. Even if he didn't like the eevee, it was not deserving of immediate death. Hell, he couldn't even kill it if he wanted to probably.

The charmeleon's thoughts faded into simply focusing on maintaining his breathing and attempts to try and get back up again that would simply fail.

_________________

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Dusk simply stood and watched as the barrier formed around her, relieved that it'd happened in time. She was hopeful that it would hold up, but she could feel the cold wind getting through, and the ground around the edges of the barrier began to freeze over almost immediately. This concerned her that the temperature alone would seep through the rocks and end the both of them, causing her to back away in order to avoid the encroaching ice. However, before it could get far, the blizzard was already over, which... was a bit surprising. The sound of the beating wind faded along with the cold temperature, and it seemed all was well. The archeops kept the wall up for a moment, presumably as a precaution, and she agreed with the decision.

When the barrier of rocks finally collapsed, she looked about the battlefield with surprise. She knew Sova was powerful, but... everything seemed to be frozen. Even some of the foes were frozen. Fortunately, though, no allies appeared to have suffered the same fate. Well, except the other umbreon, but she didn't seem to have it bad compared to the medicham and sableye who looked almost like statues. "...Wow," was all she could think to say before she heard the glaceon call out for help. However, the client or whatever she was appeared to already be on the way to help. Dusk simply decided to leave that up to someone more capable than herself.

"So... this uh... happen often?" she questioned in an attempt to start up any kind of conversation, hoping to draw attention away from the relatively disturbing day they'd all had, or at the very least, distract the archeops from having to think about some of the... less pleasant things that'd happened.

-Krikka-

Krikka knew it was going to hurt, but she also knew it was inevitable. This bothered her, but she wasn't concerned about the pain. She just didn't like being faced with the fact that she was so much weaker than someone, but maybe she could at least handle the attack and get back up. She decided that this was her goal, an she was confident in her ability to succeed. Then the blizzard winds came crashing into her, instantly pushing her off her paws and slamming her forcefully into the ground. Within that moment, she was already unconscious, and frost began to collect around her body before the blizzard finally ended. Luckily, she hadn't quite been frozen in place, but there was an ever-so-thin layer of ice coating her. It wasn't enough to kill her or anything, and it wasn't like she was conscious to feel the discomfort of the cold, but she was going to be very unhappy when she returned to consciousness.

-Shara-

Fortunately, the charmeleon's persistent attacks had ceased, though Shara assumed it was at least partly because he seemed to be rather incapacitated from exhaustion. She figured the cold wouldn't be enough to kill him what with his natural body heat, but that was not the only dangerous thing about a blizzard. When it blew over them, the lightweight ball of fluff was nearly swept into the air, but she managed to keep her traction and weigh herself down a bit by turning her tail's structure to something more... metallic. She pushed against the force of the blizzard and began to maneuver to intercept hailstones before they could hit the rather large, immobile target collapsed on the ground, whacking them with her tail. Most of them were rather small, but a few were larger and took more effort to break. Despite being strengthened like iron, her tail was beginning to hurt.

She was thankful that the thing she had to protect was at least holding still and not trying to inhibit her, but the task at hand was rather difficult. Every time she spun around to whack a hailstone away from the charmeleon, she had to struggle against the wind to keep her footing. But nonetheless, she managed... until a rather large hunk of ice came down right over the lizard. She was in a very bad position to attempt to hit it away or break it, so she simply jumped between her ally and the projectile, causing it to slam into her and send her crashing down on top of him with a sharp exhale. The hailstole had taken her breath away, but not much more, and she assumed the big angry idiot would be fine since he'd just been hit with a fluffy eevee instead of what was essentially a rock. She rolled off of his back along with the stone, collapsing to the ground and seeing that the blizzard seemed to already be stopping. With this revelation, she decided to stay down and just rest.

"I hate all of you," she muttered as she lay on the ground. Then she remembered the glaceon and frantically got back up, looking to see if he was alright. He did not seem to be alright, and even though he had been a constantly inconsiderate psychopath, he'd still done what she'd hired him for and he didn't seem to be evil... though perhaps a bit overzealous at the chance to harm things. The eevee didn't really care if someone was pleasing to her on a personal level, though, as long as they handled their job and didn't put the lives of allies in jeopardy. No one seemed dead, or at least... no one friendly, so she simply didn't care about the blizzard. She was already on her way over to help the glaceon before he could even ask, though there was a bit of distance between the two.

-S.S.-

The blizzard died out almost as quickly as it had formed, but it was enough. The ground was coated in ice and the foes had all been rendered unconscious, with the especially close medicham and sableye being frozen solid. They wouldn't be going anywhere, and they certainly wouldn't be healing. The blizzard seemed to tear itself apart violently rather than calmly fading away, as he had lost control of it due to a lack of energy. The second he saw that his immediate foes were incapacitated, he nearly collapsed, just barely managing to catch himself in a sitting position. He gasped and panted out of exhaustion, waiting to catch his breath before beginning to mutter to himself.

"Okay, Sova, it's done... I've fixed all your problems, now you can come back..." he spoke to himself, then waited as if expecting some kind of response. He was expecting Sova to come back and take over now that he'd gotten rid of all the stress, but it seemed it was not going to happen.

"...I know you don't like me, but you don't have... the right... This is your job..." he continued speaking to himself as if it made some kind of difference, like someone was listening. Sometimes, he could hear Sova even when he wasn't in control, but he knew Sova wasn't around. He was simply venting his frustrations to himself, and using the last of his energy to do so. Every word was a struggle, and it was all pointless, yet he continued to speak anyway.

He growled, seemingly at nothing, before speaking once more. "You... selfish... pathetic..." he trailed off and collapsed to the floor. Why was this happening? Was Sova gone forever? At times, he'd fantasized about having their shared life all to himself, but now faced with the possible reality of it... he no longer wanted it. He despised having to be around when his mania faded, and this was one of those times. Sova was supposed to take over for those times. They had a working relationship, where S.S. handled stressful situations and Sova handled miserable things such as socialization and... dealing with the aftermath of S.S' reckless fighting. He didn't want to have to do that himself.

He panted to catch his breath as he lay on the cold ground. It was actually rather comfortable to him, since he was built for the cold, but he was still about as far from comfortable as he could get. "HELP," he shouted in an annoyed tone that suggested it was a chore that he even had to ask, implying he felt it was obvious that someone was supposed to come assist him now. In truth, he didn't even know if anyone other than him was still conscious; he hadn't paid enough attention, and he was now staring at the floor in front of his face, unable to see if anyone was coming. His bleeding was beginning to slow now that he'd stopped straining his body and worsening his own wounds, but he still needed someone to assist him.

The storm was over, others were hurt, and he was conflicted in terms of what to with the situation. He had quite clearly heard the glaceon's cry for help, but he could not bring himself to act upon it. He was just as frozen to the spot as the enemies despite not being struck by the full force of the attack.

Shara had moved to help, but he was petrified to the spot. In fact, he almost wished he did not put the barrier down. He wanted to put it back up, wait for an eternity until he eventually slipped into the void of death where he would no longer have to worry about his fears and undoing of others through his mere existence.

Luckily Dusk gave him a momentary distraction from his internal demons. Was this a frequent occurrence? He thought for a moment with a simple, "Uhh..." before he simply responded with an honest answer, "I don't know...but I certainly hope not for everyone's sake."

But what did he know?

He was just a dumb colorful bird who couldn't hold a team together even if the lives of others depended on it.

---

Garnet was immobile as the cold winds struggled to move his weak body. He was simply too heavy for the winds to move on their own. He did and said nothing as he focused on his harsh breaths. In and out.

Unfortunately, just as he was in the middle of an inhale...something crashed on to his back. He gave a weak growl in both protest and pain, but his movement was minimal in favor of not completely draining his energy of its reserves.

Finally, the storm ended. He could hear something call for help in the distance as he was quickly abandoned. He did not care, he was fine so long as he could keep his lungs in order. One breath in, one breath out. Second breath in, second breath out.

He just had to continue this for a while and build up the energy to try and stand. Afterward, he could try getting the hell out of here and seeking someplace warmer and more comforting than this dreadful cavern of danger and ice.

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He could hear pawsteps approaching him. They sounded light, which indicated it was the one he least wanted to have helping him, mostly because he didn't want to put up with her. "I hope you're proud of yourself," came the eevee's voice, confirming that it was her. S.S. growled in response, or... he attempted to, but what came out was more of a weak gurgle followed by a cough. "Cute," the eevee remarked.

S.S. despised not being able to do anything to the ball of fur for approaching him with such a lack of fear. "Don't make..." he tried to threaten, only to have the eevee cut him off while he was between breaths.

"Shut up and focus on your breathing. You may not care whether your body lives or dies, but you don't have the right to bring your other personality down with you."

It took the glaceon a moment to figure out what the annoying mop was talking about. Despite his injuries, he lifted his head up to look at her, though he was distinctly lacking any aggression or mania in his expression. He was surprised she understood his situation without him having to explain it, but she didn't understand quite well enough. "I have the right to decide my own fate," he decided to bless the eevee with a serious response. She seemed to be silent for a moment as she tended to his wounds, wrapping them in bandaging from her bag and slowly mummifying him.

"You're not the original; it's more his body than yours, and it's unfair for you to try to kill yourself without his consent," Shara stated with high confidence in herself.

"What makes you think I'm not the original? And why should I have to worry about him? I didn't ask for this any more than he did," S.S. retorted. He was genuinely interested in this eevee's opinion since she seemed to understand his relationship with Sova.

Shara suddenly shot a glare at the glaceon. "That's just it: he's the one who asked for it. He made you to help him. With what? I don't know, but I know you're not the original since you're the one with all the issues and you only showed up when things got bad."

"You don't know-"

"What I know is that you're terrible at your job," the eevee spat. She hated that someone created specifically to help a traumatized soul would so willingly do the opposite. She'd dedicated her life to helping others, so someone else further ruining someone who was clearly already broken upset her. She understood the disorder so well because she did a lot of research in her spare time, and it was good to know a lot about mental problems just in case she ever needed to help someone with them.

At this point, S.S. had lost his interest in the conversation and simply lowered his head back to the ground. He wasn't interested in defending himself, especially since he knew he was "wrong" and simply didn't care. Surely... he didn't care.

-Dusk-

The archeops didn't know if this was a common occurrence, but Dusk got the feeling it was. She'd known Sova for a while, and while this whole alter-ego thing was new information to her, she knew Sova himself had issues already. Still, she wasn't scared or even mad, oddly enough; she understood why he acted in such a way... at least, to an extent. "Y'know, when I first met him, he'd saved me," she responded. While this may have seemed random and off-topic, she had a point she was intending to make.

"Then he started being... himself. He followed me around because he wanted to make sure I was alright, then he decided I was too reckless to be left alone, so he bribed me to get me to stick near him. At one point, the guy even knocked me out to get me away from a fight. Seems like he acts about the same to everyone; he'd rather hurt them himself than let them get themselves hurt worse on their own," she explained her situation with Sova, figuring maybe Acro would have more to say about this than the split personalities. She didn't really like thinking of how she'd been bossed around, stalked and attacked by the glaceon, mostly because it kind of hurt her ego, but she was a bit happy to know someone cared that much about her well-being. Besides, she wanted to keep Acro's mind occupied, and this was the only thing she could think to talk about.

"I don't think it matters much whether it's him or... whoever this is. I'm guessing he hurts his friends a lot either way, even if it's for different reasons," she finally got to her point and looked up at the bird for his opinion. She was beginning to have doubts about joining Sova's team now that she'd gotten a good taste of how unstable he was, though it wasn't exactly out of fear. Really, she just didn't want to stress him out and make his mental state any worse by making him have to watch her, because she knew he would.

-Dead Umbreon-

Krikka remained unconscious on the ground, coated in ice and snow. If she were to wake up, the ice wouldn't be much of an obstacle due to how thin of a coating it was, but she'd hit the ground fairly hard and had yet to awaken.

The archeops was provided with a successful distraction from his mind as the umbreon that had stuck by him for the most of this journey. The umbreon spoke up in order to perpetuate a conversation and reflect upon the past. Sova had saved her it seemed, even looked after her. It was a nice way to meet someone...well, as opposed to what could have been.

The archeops recalled how he himself had met Sova, back when he was just an eevee. He had changed since then, he likely would not have recognized him if he paid a bit less attention. The way he had first met Sova was through a request on Sova's part to escort him...though it was not quite filled with words of praise on the glaceon's part considering he had continued to beat down a houndour while Acro was under the effects of Destiny Bond. Considering it was not event he desired to revisit, he did not dare to bring light to the subject in front of the Umbreon.

"Intention matters doesn't it?" Acro suddenly spoke up with a low voice, "It was a desperate time but...that blizzard, if it wasn't stopped we would have all been..." he stopped speaking for a moment as he struggled to sort things through in his own mind, "There's a difference between trying to protect others while messing up and just not caring if they perish," he determined as he looked down at the ground. He wasn't too sure on his own words, but that was all he could really piece together. He did not know how Dusk would react, but if she wanted a response to him then he would give it. He waited for some kind of sign or message that he had screwed up answering a simple opinion, confident that he was capable of failing something that was entirely subjective.

---

Garnet remained where he was as he was not keen on socializing with anybody at the moment. If he had not been focusing on breathing he would have been berating himself for falling victim to such a petty trick. It was ridiculous and it only served to hinder the others. The charmeleon knew there was no way he could help any of the others, so he helped by not needing help. He would not take up any more attention that was needed for others. He had no idea what had happened or why the cave around them was suddenly Snowcloak On Ice, but he dared not to try and question it at the current moment in time.

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As S.S. lay on the ground, trying to ignore the annoying words of the eevee and the searing pain in his body, he contemplated what she'd said. His job was simply to reap away Sova's problems, and he felt he did this job quite nicely. He had done his best not to endanger his own life and even to avoid hurting any "allies," but because someone else had been too incompetent to keep their own fight from affecting him, he ended up having to take such a risky action. It wasn't like it was his fault! What was he supposed to do, just let himself be killed and free the two strongest enemies up to go take everyone else out? Or did he just have to care about the fact that he had hurt others? Was he not allowed to enjoy his job?

He could feel his body shudder in pain as the eevee tied off a strip of bandaging around one of his front paws. His inability to suppress the pain annoyed him, but his body reacting without his consent and making him look weak infuriated him. He tried to simply ignore it, but without anything to suppress it all, he was having difficulties. He didn't dare ask for anything to help with the pain, but he found himself wishing for something of the sort.

"Done," the eevee proclaimed, seeming quite proud of her work.

S.S. lifted his head up once more, this time to look at himself. He was practically covered in bandages. "Now I just need a coffin to complete the look," he remarked sarcastically at the fact that he quite literally looked like a mummy.

"Want me to bandage your mouth next?" Shara threatened.

"I will open every wound on my body if you try," S.S. retorted with a threat of his own. Of course, he didn't actually intend to do something quite so stupid, but he doubted the sassy little medic would actually try to seal his mouth.

-Dusk-

Dusk actually agreed with the bird's view, nodding to show she shared this opinion. The entire reason she didn't hate Sova was because she understood that he had good intentions. She despised having him treat her like a kid - like his kid - but she knew he was trying to help her. He just failed miserably. "I wouldn't have wanted to join his team if I didn't think intention mattered. I'm grateful he took so much interest in my well-being, even though I hate how he treats me... how he treats everyone," she spoke, seemingly in pretty much full agreement. However, there was one part that she was unsure of her opinion on.

She looked away from the archeops and toward the glaceon for a moment in contemplation. She knew this wasn't Sova, but what was his intention? Did he really just want to kill everyone? "But that... I don't know what it is... and I don't know what it wants. The blizzard stopped, so... maybe it was trying not to kill us," she proposed. She didn't know if the will of death inhabiting Sova's mind cared about anything other than itself, but she hoped it did. She wanted to be Sova's friend, but that had potential to make things more complicated.

"...At least, I hope so. Otherwise, I... don't know if I want to be a part of his team anymore," she admitted. She didn't really want to join his team anymore in the first place, as she didn't want to be something else weighing on his mind, but she also didn't really want to be around this thing. Sova alone was violent and dangerous enough despite meaning well, but if this other consciousness had his power without any consideration for others, she could only imagine the potential results.

-RIP Krikka-

Still practicing being dead, Krikka remained unconscious on the ground. However, she was beginning to stir from the cold.

It was time to go home. They had completed the missions and gotten what they had come for. The entire trip was a huge disaster, but at least they had the missions going for them. The Archeops folded his wings to his side as he listened to the umbreon explain her own views a bit more.

Unfortunately, he had nothing more to contribute to the conversation. It was ultimately her decision whether or not she joined Sova's team, he was neither going to encourage nor deny. If he simply stayed out of things, then he could not cause a disaster, right? He was a living charm that cursed all he intervened in.

Should he have even spoken in the first place? What if he had already done something horribly wrong by voicing his opinion? Sometimes he wondered if it would have been better for him to be a Xatu rather than an Archeops, capable of foreseeing the future. He had no idea if they were even actually capable of that as he had only heard myths and legends, but anything would have been better than this useless form he was forever stuck with.

Anything but this cursed body.

He hated it and he wanted out.

He snapped himself away from his own thoughts as he noticed that Shara seemed to have finished treating the stranger in Sova's body. Should...should he offer to carry him? Did he want to be carried? It was quite obviously not a good idea for him to be moved around, but would it be better to stay here? Would they just be attacked again?

...

What did Dusk think?

"Do you think it'd be better to get out of here or wait for him to heal a bit more?" he asked the Umbreon. Sure it probably would have been a better question for Shara, but he needed to make sure his own idea wasn't stupid.

Dusk seemed to be a bit more forgiving towards him in terms of "stupidity" and what he said.

---

Garnet is still a McRekt with a cherry on top.

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S.S. sat his head back down on the ground at an angle that allowed him to stare at his own body. All he could see was weakness in every wound, every drop of blood, every bandage. This was one of the least-fun fights he'd ever had. He just wanted Sova to take over, so he wouldn't have to deal with the boredom and pain himself. And, of course, so he didn't have to be constantly reminded of how weak and frail his body was. He disliked being so very limited that he couldn't handle being hit, and now he couldn't even suppress the pain of his injuries. But at least he had power in return for these shortcomings.

Every breath was painful, but he had to continue breathing anyway. He sighed, which was also painful, but it was nothing compared to the sensations of agony that'd previously invaded his body. "Well... I guess it's about time to get up," he muttered as he attempted to pull himself off the ground.

"Wait, no, you-" the client tried to coax him into ceasing his attempt to kill himself by continuing to push his tattered body, but he barely even managed to lift his belly off the ground before collapsing.

"...Are an idiot," she continued, changing her tune now that she knew he couldn't even get himself off the ground.

The glaceon growled. In his weak state, he was forced to keep his response to a simple "F*ck you."

-Dusk-

The umbreon stared blankly in the direction of the body of her friend, wondering what was going on inside the mind of its possessor. She feared the thought of what could possibly have created such a thing, the life and circumstances needed to form such a powerful and deranged creature. What was its origin? A curse, or simple insanity? Perhaps the delirium that'd been going around due to the world on the cusp of an apocalypse? How much didn't she know about Sova? Then an even scarier thought came into her mind.

She looked down at her paws, remembering how she'd been feeling and acting since getting the cloak.

Would she end up like him? Was even being around him a good idea? If becoming like him was a possible future for her, he would surely be an influence in that direction, right? But he was her friend, he'd saved her... and she strangely still trusted him. She found herself amidst internal conflict, dreading the thought of both her options. But there was one decision she was fairly confident on: she did not want to be a part of his team. There was no good reason to even bother trying. If he didn't end up negatively impacting her, she would still negatively impact him. She now understood that her desire had been selfish and stupid, and besides, Sova didn't need any teammates.

Now, she held a different desire.

She hadn't been paying much attention to what the archeops had said, and it hadn't quite registered in her mind yet, so she simply looked up to him and opened her mouth to say something entirely unrelated. "I'd like to- ..." she stopped herself as it clicked in her head that Acro had spoken. It was something about whether they should leave immediately or wait? "Uh..." she muttered, trying to think it through. "It... I... think we should just leave. He can deal with it; someone can carry him or something. It's not like he's in any condition to argue, so if everyone else can move, just carry him," she gave her honest opinion, trying to just forget about what she'd been about to say before.

It was a stupid thought, anyway.

-KRIPa-

"...Whyyyyyyyyy."

The umbreon awoke to the unpleasant feeling of the cold, and she was not happy about it. She shifted slightly, causing the ice around her to crumble and break away, but she then began to feel the soreness in her body from the day's... exercise. In other words, the fact that she'd been beaten to Hell and back just for being around these idiots. She hoped the sparkly thing that'd blooped into her would end up being worth this unholy excursion.

"Whyyyyyyyy," someone called out. The familiar voice rang in his ears and only caused a headache as he realized who it was. She wasn't dead? Pity.

"Shut uuuuuup." he responded with an equally as whiney, weak, and mocking tone. He was not in the mood to deal with her at the current moment in time as he needed to piece together what the hell had just happened and why. He felt as if he had the strength to get up, but he did not yet push himself to do so. Instead, he positioned himself so that he could look towards the others.

Sova's body was pretty beaten, the eevee that had protected him earlier was helping him. He snorted, a plume of smoke emitted from his nostrils on the exhale as his body began to warm up once more. He was just waiting at this point. He saved his strength, for they had quite a long trek home to make.

--

Acro's attention was pulled away from his own question as Dusk started a train of thought before ditching it for a new one. She was going to ask something, but what was she going to ask?

She gave her opinion, they should just carry him. That seemed logical, yeah. He was glad his idea was not stupid, but still, he felt as if there would have been something that would have gone horribly wrong if he didn't bounce it off someone else first, just to check.

"Wait," he asked, "What were you going to ask?" he requested of the umbreon. He would not pressure her into her answering at all, but if she really did not want to talk then she could just dismiss it. He was no longer going to butt into business that wasn't his or do anything that might remotely jeopardize anything anymore. Not if he could help it.

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The eevee repositioned herself to be standing right in front of the glaceon's face, hovering over him and staring down at him. He disliked this, as he knew she was doing this to be in a better position to stop him from getting up. "I just want you to know I hate you," he spoke, mostly because he felt like he needed to retaliate somehow. The eevee simply gave an indifferent shrug in response, which seemed marginally better than a verbal response. He wanted to get up instead of having someone babysitting him while he was stuck on the ground like a cripple, but at least he didn't have to carry on any conversations with anyone.

He sighed and gave a look around at his handiwork, since he had nothing better to do. The radius of his blizzard was average at best, at least for him, but it didn't matter since it seemed to have done the job. The foes had all been dealt with, and more importantly, everyone else seemed to be alive and well. Or... maybe "well" was an overstatement, but at least they weren't dead. He was confused as to why the eevee seemed so uspet with him, then. He hadn't severely injured anyone he wasn't supposed to hurt, so why was it even a big deal? Was she really upset just because he'd risked his own safety? Or was it that he'd attacked his allies, regardless of whether or not anyone was actually hurt? He dared not ask and bring down the wrath of the judgmental talking lint ball once more.

-Dusk-

Dusk hanged her head and sighed as the bird picked up that she'd been about to ask a question of her own. She didn't want to say it now, thinking it'd just be inappropriate and stupid. She'd never be able to keep up with him, and he probably wasn't in the mood to answer such requests... but it seemed rude not to at least tell him, since she'd already messed up and gotten him curious. Still looking down at the ground, she considered her words very carefully before speaking. She then raised her head and tried to put up a confident demeanor as she stared at the archeops.

"I want to join your team."

The second she said it, she immediately regretted it. What if he turned her down because he didn't think she'd be able to keep up or something? Hopefully, this wouldn't be the case. She wanted to learn from a skilled guild member, and if Sova wasn't an option, she wanted Acro! Sure, Aileron seemed like somewhat of an obstacle, but she figured he could just fly her up there. She figured he'd probably be upset and hesitant after just losing a teammate, but that was exactly why she wanted to ask immediately. She wanted to be able to be around him and keep him company, so he at least wouldn't have to be alone. She didn't know if he had any other teammates, after all, and the thought of someone being so alone after losing a friend seemed terrible.

She'd had second thoughts about her desire to join his team, feeling like she'd probably just get in his way and make his life even worse, just like with Sova. But it was a little too late to take it back now, and she was still hopeful that she could at least give him some comfort in return for potentially being a liability.

Besides, the prestige of Aileron was very appealing.

-Krikka-

Her ears twitched as she heard a response from the charmeleon. He was sassing her. If he wanted to play that game, then she would happily play along. "Nooooooooo," she responded, making sure to sound extra-annoying just for him. She decided to get herself up and off of the cold ground, the rest of the icy residue being scattered away as she arose and shook her fur. "Uhg, I hope I don't still poof up when I get wet..." she muttered to herself, PTSD flashbacks of bad fur days as an eevee flooding her mind. She hoped things would be different as an umbreon, since her fur seemed to be less... fluffy.

Upon getting a good look around, the first thing she noticed was that everything was significantly whiter than before. She didn't like the glaceon's decision to mow everyone down with a blizzard - primarily because she was part of "everyone" - but she couldn't help but be a bit impressed by the radius and power of the attack. The ground had been frozen along with some of the foes; the entire situation had been settled in one attack. This was the kind of thing she wished she could do herself, but she knew she was nowhere near powerful enough for such feats... yet.

She decided to simply sit down as opposed to getting up and walking around, as her body was sore and cold. Her attention shifted from the environment to the things in it as she tried to get a good idea of where everyone was, and what state they were all in. The charmeleon seemed to be pretty exhausted if nothing else, while the archeop and lesser umbreon were... pretty much fine? It took her a moment to notice the rocks surrounding them and put together that the prior must have protected the two of them. She was a bit upset at not being within range of this convenient protection, but she supposed she was still relatively well-off compared to some of the others. Namely, the glaceon: he appeared to be poorly mummified, hopefully in preparation for some kind of live burial.

She...she wanted to join the team? The archeops was a bit...stunned to say the least. She had just seen one of his teammates meet a rather bloody and cruel end, why would she want to join a team who's leader could not keep their teammates alive? It was his responsibility and he had failed. He was a failure. Should he even be an explorer? Was he just going to eventually bring an end to the guild altogether by being near it?

What could he do to avoid harming others? Would his very corpse bring misfortune? His mind raced as he tried to determine whether or not he should reject her or accept the offer. She seemed quite nice, he had even come to rely on her a bit just a mere moment ago. He didn't want to bring misfortune upon her, but would he do that just by rejecting her offer? Was he just powerless in everything?

He certainly felt like it.

So what was he to do? He felt an overwhelming sense of defeat, but despite that he forced a small smile upon his expression, "Sure, I mean, if you want..."

He would just let her do as she pleased. She would make her decisions, he would just have to stop interfering in any way he could. He was going to sit down and he was going to shut up.

--

"Tooo baaaaaaad," he responded, determined to get the last word against the annoying umbreon. It was childish, but he did not quite care about his maturity level at this point. The others were hardly paying any attention anyways. The umbreon and the archeops had paired off while the Glaceon and the eevee spoke with each other. Which left him with....

Could they go home now? Home would be great. He didn't really have a place to call home, but he would rather be someplace significantly safer that held no threat of being ambushed and killed so he could focus on recovering from the effects of whatever the hell had hit him earlier.

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The pain was beginning to subside, though S.S. still wasn't happy about it. He'd never had to stick around for so long. Perhaps it would have been a good thing for him if he'd had something to do, or any friends, or... anything. But alas, he hated everyone and everything, and it wasn't like it was his fault. He'd been created to hate, to fight, and to win. It was all he was really good at, and it was all he enjoyed. Perhaps he'd have been different if not for the fact that he was bound to someone else's life, but he simply could not bring himself to enjoy the idea of trying to share a life with Sova.

The right to "live" was Sova's, yet now it seemed Sova didn't even want it. S.S. had been left alone to struggle to hold together his host's miserable life, which was NOT supposed to be his job. He couldn't exactly try to have his own life, because then Sova would probably come back and ruin it by finding some way to punish him. Or... maybe he could. Sure, Sova would be upset, but if he was going to be left alone, maybe he could just have a little fun and do something for himself for once. This thought almost excited him, until he remembered there was nothing he really wanted to do. He figured he would just have to wait for Sova to come back.

"Well, I guess it's about time for us to go," Shara spoke up, though she got no response. The glaceon simply remained still and silent on the ground. "Ay," she prodded his face with a paw in an attempt to get his attention.

S.S. was finding it hard to focus. Perhaps this was a sign that Sova would soon be back, or maybe it was just from the blood loss. He glanced over to the archeops as a miserable thought popped into his head. "I'm gonna have to let that living gay pride flag carry me... Great."

-Dusk-

Dusk's ears perked up upon the archeops' acceptance. She'd half-expected to have to push for him to let her join his team, but he'd just agreed right off the bat! She didn't know what to say, whether to express her gratitude or promise not to let him down. She ended up deciding not to say anything out of concern that she would sound a bit too excited and end up overwhelming him, or perhaps making him uncomfortable. She simply stared up at the colorful bird for a moment with perked ears, trying to suppress her joy as she nodded to show she was certain she wanted to join him.

She then looked back to the glaceon, then around at the others to see if they all seemed capable of getting up and moving. Aside from the blue mummy, everyone seemed capable of moving along. Probably. "Well, wanna go ahead and get going?" she looked back to Acro, then flicked her head toward the glaceon as she began walking in his direction, trying to signal for the bird to come pick him up so they could leave.

-Krikka-

The charmeleon's personality was at least consistent, if nothing else. Krikka decided to simply ignore him, desiring not to draw any attention to herself by getting into a childish, pitiful excuse for an argument with the guy she'd just recently poisoned. She didn't really want anyone to notice the tension between them and potentially put the situation together. None of them seemed particularly interested in her, and she wanted to keep it that way. She simply allowed the lizard to get the last word as she waited for the group to get moving. Now that she had what she'd come for, she would be looking for an opportunity to slip away from them, but she needed to at least follow them closer to the exit first. She didn't really fancy the idea of being stuck in the depths of this place alone.

She couldn't help but feel... different. The sparkly thing she'd touched in the chamber didn't seem to have changed her at all, at least physically speaking, but she still felt distinctly different. There was an odd feeling in her mind, almost describable as a haze, yet it didn't seem to be negatively impacting her at all. In fact, if anything, it was just helping her to prioritize things in her mind and focus. It felt almost like a high, and she knows what that feels like because reasons, but significantly weaker.

--------Epilogue--------

The group got going to search for the remaining outlaws with S.S. being carried by Acro. Complaints on the glaceon's part were kept to a minimum, and he eventually passed out from exhaustion and blood loss. His loss of consciousness stuck through the remainder of the trip, though neither personality really wanted to be awake in the first place, so this worked out nicely.

They found the remaining outlaws with ease. The multiple avalugg had been guarding the hall not too far from the fight in order to prevent anyone from "escaping." Apparently, the outlaws had been confident in their victory, stationing some of the weaker members of their gang to prevent the targets from fleeing. The avalugg all seemed to be relatively weak, or at the very least, not confident in their fighting skills; they immediately surrendered upon learning their allies had been defeated, proclaiming that their job was just to be a "wall."

After Shara explained that he'd been afflicted with some unknown ailment which had been cured with a lum berry, Garnet began to grow suspicious of the morbidly perky umbreon. Before he could accuse her of anything, Krikka had already seen the potential bad situation coming and separated herself from the group, proclaiming to herself that she was "one step ahead of him." She needed the ego boost.

Acro didn't speak much outside of when spoken to, though Dusk tried to keep him occupied with questions and conversation topics.